Applicant has filed a design patent application on Jul. 9, 1992, under Ser. No. 07/911,039 with the same title "Tomato Green House." No action has been taken to date on this application by the Patent and Trademark Office other than designating a Preliminary Class: D25 and granting a Foreign Filing License on Jul. 22, 1992.
Plant protectors heretofore have been designed to protect young plants against frost damage by covering the plant with some form of barrier. These barriers were designed to retain available heat surrounding the plant prior to a temperature drop that may be sufficient to freeze the subject plant. Parchment domes, plastic tunnels, and water-filled plastic flutes have all been used in an attempt to afford protection from freezing with various degrees of success.
One of the early popular plant protectors was known as the Hot Cap. This parchment dome cover which was sealed at the bottom by covering the parchment flanges with soil, afforded protection from wind and bugs but minimal protection from frost due to the minor insulation value of the paper thin parchment cover. The greatest disadvantage of the Hot Cap was the gardener's inability to see the plant and its needs for water and weeding. Eventually the gardener had to cut open the Hot Cap to release too much entrapped heat or to test the soil for proper moisture requirements directly beneath the plant. A surprising number of weeds could grow under the Hot Cap unbeknown to the gardener, choking out the primary plant.
A more recent state-of-the-art device, the Wall O'Water is comprised of opaque plastic flutes which when filled with water act as a wall around the subject plant. The theory is that the water absorbs heat during the sunlight hours and releases same during the night or at any time during a temperature drop to retain a higher temperature around the plant inside the wall. In actuality the white wall of water reflects heat rather than absorbing heat and the 3 gallons of water trapped in the plastic flutes is a much better conductor of heat than an insulator against cold. The gardener is required to fill some 18 flutes with water for each plant protected. The flutes can leak and rupture causing collapse of the protecting wall and damage to the plant.
It is the purpose of the present invention to provide an improvement over previous known state of the art by eliminating the problems heretofore known.